After ten years I'm no longer on the committee for Qld Independent Cat Council. I stood down from the secretary position at yesterday's AGM, and declined nomination for any other position. It feels strange.

I've thrown myself wholeheartedly into my membership of QICC, holding at various times the presidency, the treasurer role and for the last two years being secretary. But then something happened, which made me feel sick at heart and I felt I had no alternative but to stand down, and am seriously considering leaving the council altogether. You see, QICC has long had a reputation for being dodgy. I always though it was unfounded and I've defended the organisation for as long as I've been a member, saying that we're NOT dodgy; might be a bit slack in some departments but we don't do anything underhand.

And then I found out that we did. Only a little thing, maybe, but I felt devastated to learn that I was wrong. And if this one thing was dodgy, how many other dodgy things was I simply not aware of? I couldn't sleep for a couple of nights, thinking about this. At the meeting yesterday two other examples of underhanded dealing were discussed, and everyone was laughing about them, while I'm sat there feeling like a lone wolf howling at the moon, and all I'm getting is bottles thrown at me. In a manner of speaking.

So that's it, I'm out. I can't condone their actions, I don't agree with the prevalent mindset, and I can't stomach their ethics. And it hurts, dammit. It's not supposed to hurt like this when it was my decision to go.

Not cat welfare, just accepting ineligible entries into our show. Which sounds like such a minor thing but the repercussions are huge - what if the ineligible kittens had won Cat of the Year points? As it was, I had a friend from another council ring me to ask why we accepted the entries, and what could I say? Wasn't going to lie and say I didn't know about them, when I'd had strong words to the president about accepting them AT THE TIME THAT THE ENTRY WAS SUBMITTED. Long before the show date. And then you wonder how many others have been accepted with bodgied-up birthdates, or pedigrees, or whatever, just for the sake of a few more entries. Nup, I'm done.